Are They Really “Green” and “High-Powered”?
Introduction
Company History
A2 Hosting was originally founded in 2001 in Ann Arbor, Michigan under the name Iniquinet. They rebranded under the banner “A2 Hosting” in 2003.
The “A2” is a play on the name of their hometown “Ann Arbor” which is also the home of their primary data center. Their other data centers are located in the Netherlands and Singapore.
Company Objectives
A2 Hosting strives to be known as “High Powered Hosting” provider. Speed and reliability for their customers is their top priority.
One of the ways they work to accomplish this is with their “turbo servers” that only have SSD hard drives. To back up their marketing hype, they offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee on all hosting plans.
They also partner with Carbonfund.org to purchase carbon offsets so their compute load is carbon neutral. Carbonfund.org recognizes A2 Hosting as being a Carbonfree® Business for over 10 years.
All of their plans come with a free SSL certificate, unlimited SSD storage, unlimited transfer, and free site migration. All good things we like to see!
Their performance is excellent based on our test beacon:
http://a2-openhostingreviews.com
Uptime – 99.91%
Response Time – 952 ms
WordPress Render Time – 159 milliseconds
Quick Overview
July 2019 Thru June 2021
| Average Page Speed | 952 ms |
| Average Render Time | 227 ms |
| Average Uptime | 99.91% 420 minutes over 66 outages |
| Average Security Threats | 5 threats |
| Support | 24/7 Live Chat |
| Apps | WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento |
| Features | Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage, Free SSL, Anytime Money Back |
| Plans | Shared, WordPress, VPS, Reseller and Dedicated Servers |
| Transfer | Free Site Transfer |
| Pricing | Starting at $2.96/mo (renews at $7.99/mo) |
Three Main Considerations
Speed and Reliability
There are other hosting companies on our list that have better speed and uptime, but A2 Hosting is near the top. Because you only have a second or so to keep someone on your website, I am always looking for at least 99.95% uptime and a page load time in at least 700ms.
We are constantly testing A2 Hosting’s speed and uptime with a stripped down WordPress website as a testing beacon. Here is a link to that site:
http://a2-openhostingreviews.com
In our testing, A2 Hosting has been really close to our expecations. They are also beating out most of the competition. Below you will find a breakdown of their performance by month:
July 2019 average uptime: 99.83% average load speed: 785 ms
Aug 2019 average uptime: 99.89% average load speed: 760 ms
Sep 2019 average uptime: 99.93% average load speed: 917 ms
Oct 2019 average uptime: 99.79% average load speed: 828 ms
Nov 2019 average uptime: 99.76% average load speed: 849 ms
Dec 2019 average uptime: 99.86% average load speed: 1,274 ms
Jan 2020 average uptime: 99.90% average load speed: 1,180 ms
Feb 2020 average uptime: 99.96% average load speed: 1,050 ms
Mar 2020 average uptime: 99.94% average load speed: 1,056 ms
Apr 2020 average uptime: 99.95% average load speed: 1,038 ms
May 2020 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 806 ms
June 2020 average uptime: 99.80% average load speed: 864 ms
July 2020 average uptime: 99.82% average load speed: 836 ms
Aug 2020 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 1,000 ms
Sep 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,066 ms
Oct 2020 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 1,076 ms
Nov 2020 average uptime: 99.90% average load speed: 992 ms
Dec 2020 average uptime: 99.94% average load speed: 904 ms
Jan 2021 average uptime: 99.93% average load speed: 860 ms
Feb 2021 average uptime: 99.94% average load speed: 974 ms
Mar 2021 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 927 ms
Apr 2021 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 993 ms
May 2021 average uptime: 100% average load speed: 900 ms
June 2021 average uptime: 99.75% average load speed: 901 ms
Quality of Support
While great performance is something we all want and need, having a great technical partner when you have questions or something goes wrong is absolutely critical.
A2 Hosting makes it easy to contact their support. You can call their support, chat, or email in 24/7. What’s even better is that their support is very knowledgeable and give quick and accurate support.
I have a little test for gauging the quality of support for any technical services provider like Web Hosting companies. I connect to their chat and ask them a question they should be able to rattle off quickly:
“What version of RHEL or CentOS is my website running on?”
This question is good because everyone in the support pipeline should know the Operating System their servers are running. It also tells me if their systems are up to date.
Quick replies to technical questions, and up to date server infrastructure are key indicators of a well-oiled machine.
Here is a screenshot of my chat with A2 Hosting support:
This interaction with A2 Hosting support was great overall. The pop-up required me to authenticate my account, and it took about 5 minutes to connect. This was my only real gripe.
The outstanding part was that my support agent “Brendan” knew the answer to my question right away. It sort of blew me away.
The support at some of the other Web Hosting companies we have reviewed really got hung up on this one.
I was really happy to get the correct information, and in a decent amount of time. It was a kind of a pain to go through the extra step of authenticating my account with a Support PIN.
However, it is nice to know that someone “off the street” so to speak can’t just call in and jack up my account. A very good practice for cyber security and privacy.
Affordability
For the type of performance and uptime we have seen with our A2 Hosting account, they are very affordable. Especially with the bonus of great support.
You can get started on A2 Hosting for just $2.96/month on their basic plan. Their mid-tier plan is $3.70/month. Their top-tier plan has a “Turbo Boost” of performance and starts at $7.03/month.
These are introductory offers and to get these prices you have to buy 36 months of service upfront. The prices will go up when you renew the service after your initial purchase. This is pretty standard for the Hosting Industry.
One thing I really like about A2 Hosting is that they got rid of their 30 Day Money-Back Guarantee. Why is that a good thing, you say?
Because they replaced it with their “Hassle Free, Anytime Money Back Guarantee.”
Yup, they will give pro-rated refunds on cancellation requests after 30 days. I like their confidence!
Here is a copy of my receipt for purchasing the A2 Hosting Lite package for a month-to-month term:
You can see that without purchasing service upfront there is no discount and costs $9.99/month.
Available Plans, Pricing, and Details
Lite Plan
The A2 Hosting Lite Plan has an introductory price of $2.96/month. The plan will support one website. This plan was created with new website owners in mind. It has unlimited SSD storage and a free SSL certificate.
Swift Plan
The A2 Hosting Swift Plan has an introductory price of $3.70/month. It comes with everything in the Lite Plan, but you can host an unlimited number of websites, it is twice as fast, and it comes with free automated backups.
Turbo Plan
The A2 Hosting Turbo Plan has an introductory price of $7.03/month. It comes with everything in the Swift Plan, but they spice up your account so it is 20 times faster.
Plan Feature Comparison
Plan Features
- Includes Domain: No, domain registration is $14.95/year.
- Easy Setup Process: Complete an easy two-page registration form. The form will also give you the option to install WordPress at the same time.
- Admin Dashboard Experience: Control panel is very clean and easy-to-use. Uses cPanel for site administration.
- 3rd Party Application Support: One-click integration with Softaculous for easy installation of popular scripts like WordPress, Weebly, Joomla, Drupal, OpenCart, and more.
- Server Information: Linux CentOS 7, PHP 5 and 7, MySQL 5.6, PostgreSQL 10
- Payment Methods: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Amex, PayPal, Skrill, Check/Money Order, Bank Transfer.
- Hidden Fees and Clauses: No refunds are given on any domain names. Renewal rates for both domains and hosting increase.
- Upsells: Some Upsells. But it’s common in the web hosting industry, so don’t worry about it.
Other Plans
If you have other web hosting needs, A2 Hosting offers other types of plans. They offer Reseller, VPS (Virtual Private Server), and Dedicated Server hosting plans.
Do We Recommend A2 Hosting?
Yes, we recommend their services.
A2 Hosting has shown to provide world-class service in all of our testing. They have responsive customer service and support. We really like that they offer free SSL certificates and SSD storage on all their plans.
We also really like that they offer one free site migration, and they have a money-back guarantee passed 30 days!
Visit A2Hosting.com